A Breath of Fresh Air

familiar with genetic terminology. Chap- BOOK REVIEW ter references are indicated with an * or a diamond } depending on relevance and an excellent way to find a good reference A breath of fresh air quickly...... I enjoyed the miscellaneous section Respiratory Genetics most – covering rare diseases and syn- dromes. It is up to date and includes EK Silverman, SD Shapiro, DA Lomas, ST Weiss. Hodder Arnold, 2005. discussion of causes of hereditary and ...... sporadic pneumothorax including certain Patrick J Morrison mutations in Birt-Hogg-Dube´ syndrome – ...... something that was not really recognised until recently. European Journal of Human Genetics (2006) 14, 1145 . There are only six colour plates – doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201672 disappointing in a book of this size but overall, this is a great book for respiratory and interested general physicians. General his is an excellent new textbook to carry out a good Pub Med search, and a clinical geneticists will find it useful to on respiratory genetics – an area succinct guide to SNPs and microarrays. have a copy in the library for reference, that has suddenly emerged over Other chapters cover pharmacokinetics and may find their laboratory colleagues T the last decade. and functional genomics. having a look at the more clinical sec- It is well written and divided into four Parts 2–4 cover three clinical respira- tions. This book should become the clear sections: tory disease sections – Part 2 covers standard reference text in this area’ Part 1 deals with key concepts in obstructive lung disease – asthma, chronic respiratory genetics – this section is tar- pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis are Patrick J Morrison is a Professor in the geted at nongeneticists and will not be of covered comprehensively. Part 3 deals Department of Medical Genetics, Belfast great interest to readers of this journal, with interstitial lung disease, Part 4 covers but provides an excellent overview for the miscellaneous – including the genetics of City Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 general respiratory clinician, and includes lung cancer and rare lung diseases. The 7AB, Northern Ireland, UK. topics on Bioinformatics, including how glossary is excellent for those not fully E-mail: [email protected]

Alzheimer’s disease; and the use of genetic A balanced perspective of psychiatric counselling for such conditions. In addi- tion, the authors discuss strategies for genetics tracking down and studying functional ...... polymorphisms that have modest but ad- Psychiatric Genetics and Genomics ditive effects on brain function; appro- aches that are of interest to geneticists Edited by Peter McGuffin, Michael J Owen and Irving I Gottesman. Oxford working on other complex human diseases. University Press 2004. Part one of this book equips the reader ...... with an understanding of the important Barbara A Jennings theoretical and technical aspects of mod- ...... ern molecular biology; the study of quan- titative genetics; linkage and association European Journal of Human Genetics (2006) 14, 1145–1146. studies. The important landmarks in the doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201679 history of these disciplines are presented, and complex concepts are described thor- oughly and in plain English. eter McGuffin, Michael Owen, twin and adoption studies for all of the The subsequent chapters that consider Irving Gottesman and their expert major mental disorders. It also describes abnormal development and adult onset co-authors have provided a cohe- the underlying genetics and patho- disorders such as affective disorder, schi- P sive and comprehensive overview physiology for diseases for which there is a zophrenia, substance abuse and dementia of psychiatric genetics. Their book reviews detailed understanding, such as Hunting- follow a disciplined and well-structured the plethora of data available from family, ton’s disease and familial forms of format. In each case, the classification and